Abstract
Across the globe, urbanization is increasing, intensifying the pressure on greenspaces, which affects all its users, including children. This is potentially concerning since exposure to nature enhances children’s health and well-being. With regard to well-being, while robust evidence is present on the positive relationship between exposure to nature and well-being of children, currently no monetary valuation of the well-being benefits exists, making them more difficult to appropriately include in public decision-making. This study, for the first time, puts a monetary value on neighborhood greenspace exposure for children using the life satisfaction approach (LSA). The LSA quantifies the influence of neighborhood greenspace on children’s life satisfaction (LS) and compares it to the impact of other determinants of their LS that can be valued in monetary terms. In that way, the LSA calculates the amount of money to offset a change in neighborhood greenspace to keep the child at the same level of LS. As a result, the LSA does not require children or their parents to assign monetary values themselves. Data were gathered from 475 parent-child pairs in Flanders (age range 10-12). The monetary value will be determined based on the tradeoff between the impact of the exposure of neighborhood greenspace on children’s LS and the impact of time children spend with their parents on children’s LS. This time will be valued using the market replacement cost and opportunity cost method. The results of the study reveal the monetary value of neighborhood greenspace in terms of improvements in children’s self-reported LS.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic, Social, and Cultural Context
KEYWORDS
Neighborhood greenspace, Life satisfaction, Valuation, Children
